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Court Upholds ‘Life’ For Briton

UWAIT CITY, May 25: The Court of Cassation on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by a British man, identified as Timothy Rutherford, who had been convicted of smuggling 50 kilos of hashish from Iraq and upheld the verdict of a lower court which had earlier sentenced him to life amounting to 25 years in jail.

The court also upheld the ruling of a lower court on the deportation of Rutherford after serving the sentence, but canceled the KD 10,000 fine imposed on him.

According to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), the officers put Rutherford under surveillance for more than two months after receiving information that he has smuggled a large quantity of hashish into the country.

On Sept 18, the officers received information from reliable sources that Rutherford was about to sell hashish to an undisclosed ‘customer’ at the suburb of Salmiya. This led to his arrest and he later showed police the tyre where he hid the hashish.

During interrogations, Rutherford admitted the crime, saying he had earlier smuggled small quantities of hashish into the country. He has taken advantage of his job as a civil contractor, dealing with the British Army, to smuggle hashish as he can move freely between Iraq and Kuwait. Police raided his house where they found KD 15,000 and $4,000 cash which, he admitted, are part of his revenues from selling hashish.

On April 12, 2009, the Criminal Court declared Rutherford guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment to be followed by deportation. The court also fined him KD 10,000.

Rutherford appealed the verdict, but the Court of Appeals upheld it on July 26, 2009.